1970 - Fiji becomes independent after nearly a century of British rule; Quebec Labor Minister Pierre Laporte is kidnapped by the Quebec Liberation Front, a militant separatist group. His body is found a week later.

1973 - U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew resigns after his conviction for income tax evasion.

1975 - The murder of journalist Vladimir Herzog in an army jail in Brazil causes indignation in the military high command and starts a gradual dismantling of the dictatorship.

1980 - Thousands of casualties are reported following earthquake in Al Asnan, Algeria.

1985 - U.S. jet fighters force an Egyptian airliner carrying hijackers of cruise ship Achille Lauro to land in Italy, where the hijackers are arrested.

1988 - Suspected Tamil militants attack a village in northern Sri Lanka, killing at least 47 people as they sleep.

1990 - The U.S. freezes $564 million in economic and military aid to Pakistan, because of its suspected continued development of nuclear weapons.

1991 - German political leaders agree to establish large refugee camps to protect people seeking asylum. The agreement came amid a continuing wave of violence led by neo-Nazi skinhead youths against foreigners in Germany.

1992 - A court in Karachi, Pakistan acquits Asif Ali Zardari, the husband of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, on charges of masterminding the murder of 29 rival political supporters.

1994 - Haitian leader Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras resigns, paving the way for the return of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

1995 - Israel releases about 300 Palestinian prisoners and hands a military government office to the PLO in a fitful start to the West Bank autonomy agreement.

1996 - Afghanistan's new Taliban rulers search house-to-house for anyone suspected of collaborating with the former regime, unleashing a wave of fear among ethnic minorities.

1997 - A former senior FBI official is sentenced to 18 months in prison for his role in covering up a damning report about the 1992 standoff at white supremacist Randall C. Weaver's cabin near Ruby Ridge, Idaho, which resulted in three deaths.

1998 - Rebels use a missile to shoot down a jetliner carrying 40 civilians in eastern Congo, claiming it was ferrying government troops to the besieged town of Kindu.

1999 - Cuban President Fidel Castro agrees to an emigration deal with Israel where members of Cuba's small Jewish minority are allowed to move to Israel using Canadian-issued exit visas.

2000 - Sirimavo Bandaranaike, who 40 years earlier became the world's first female prime minister, dies of a heart attack in Colombo, Sri Lanka, after voting in parliamentary elections. She was 84.

2001 - Americans George A. Akerlof, A. Michael Spence, and Joseph E. Stiglitz win the Nobel Prize in economics for research into how the control of information influences everything from used car sales to the rise and collapse in high-tech stocks.

2002 - Final results from legislative assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir state confirm that the National Conference party failed to win a majority after ruling the Himalayan region for most of the past 50 years.

2003 - U.S. President Bush announces measures to increase U.S. pressure on the government of Cuban President Fidel Castro, including a crackdown on U.S. tourists who visit Cuba illegally and the creation of a high-level task force to plan for a post-Castro Cuba.

2004 - Afghans pack polling stations for a historic presidential election that is blemished when all 15 candidates opposing U.S.-backed interim President Hamid Karzai withdrew, charging the government and the U.N. with fraud and incompetence.

2005 - Gen. Augusto Pinochet's wife and younger son are arrested in Chile's capital and charged as accomplices in a tax evasion case linked to an investigation into the former dictator's multimillion-dollar fortune overseas.

2006 - Two bombs explode in insurgency-torn southern Philippines, killing six people and wounding more than 30, as officials heighten security amid warnings that al-Qaida-linked terrorists were planning further attacks.

2007 - The Russian Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz TMA-11 space ship carrying a new crew to the international space station lifts off from the Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.

2009 - Turkey and Armenia sign a landmark agreement to establish diplomatic relations and open their sealed border after a century of enmity, as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton helps the two sides clear a last-minute snag.

2010 - Churches, banquet halls and other wedding venues across the U.S. are extra busy as couples seeking a perfect 10 rushed to tie the knot on a once-in-a-century milestone: Oct. 10, 2010.

2011 - Egypt's ruling military condemns a surge in deadly violence as an attempt to undermine the state, and warns it will act to safeguard the peace following a night of clashes that drew in Christians, Muslims and security forces.

2012 - Schools shut their doors and Pakistanis across the country hold vigils for a 14-year-old girl who was shot by a Taliban gunman after daring to advocate education for girls and criticizing militant group.